Dowry and Daughters

The Social, Religious and Legal Dilemma of Denying Dowry

Anwesha Arya-Bhattacharya

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781032669250
• eBook ISBN: 9781000859584
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Asian American Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This book studies the relevance of dowry as a customary practice in Indian marriages. It examines the historical articulation between traditional cultural texts and modern statutory law to understand how daughters are valued and how dowry as a custom defines this value. The author creates a conceptual link between modern, medieval and ancient marriage rites that formulate and embed dowry behaviour and practice within Indian society. This book also provides a critique of the cultural textual tradition of India and South Asia. It asserts for the first time that Vedic materialism is at the core of an adequate understanding of how dowry as wealth comes to occupy such a central position in the field of marriage.

An important study into the custom and tradition of South Asia, this book will be indispensable for students and researchers of cultural studies, women's studies, gender studies, religion, history, law and South Asian studies.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Frontispiece
• Table of Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction: Dowry exists
• 1 Dowry and fatal auspiciousness
• 2 Text and context
• 3 What is “good custom” or sadācāra?
• 4 Legal texts, religious rites and social traditions
• 5 The phantom of dowry in context and text
• 6 Ancient marriage expectations and the Ṛgveda
• 7 Dowry in ancient marriage arrangements
• 8 Anti-dowry law: A misguided strategy
• 9 Dowry as sadācāra becomes dharma
• Bibliography
• Index